16 Preface فَعَصىٰ فِرعَونُ الرَّسولَ فَأَخَذناهُ أَخذًا وَبيلًاYusuf AliBut Pharaoh disobeyed1 the messenger; so We seized him with a heavy Punishment.Pharaoh the earthly king faces Moses the Prophet of God. In earthly eyes it was Moses who disobeyed Pharaoh. In spiritual relations, it was Pharaoh who disobeyed Moses. Pharaoh represented an ancient and mighty kingdom, with a long history behind it, and a pride in its learning and science, art, organisation, and power. Moses led a depressed people, hewers of wood and drawers of water. But the might of God was behind him. What became of the wisdom, power, and armies of Pharaoh? They were rent asunder when the day came, and the terror and surprise must have been the same as if the heavens had been rent asunder, and children’s hair had turned grey! But formidable revolutions turn children greyhaired in another way. Nations that were as children became wise before they in their turn decayed, and from similar disobedience to the laws of God. For God’s law must stand and be fulfilled when all else is swept away.